A police lieutenant in a Cincinnati suburb has been indicted on a felony charge for allegedly using his department’s Flock license plate reader cameras to track someone he knew.
Walter Cordes, 48, a lieutenant with the Sharonville Police Department, searched the Flock system 29 times between Dec. 19, 2024, and April 20, 2026, to find the person’s whereabouts for personal reasons unrelated to police work, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.
A grand jury indicted him Oct. 13 on one count of unauthorized use of a computer, cable or telecommunication property. The charge is a fifth-degree felony that carries up to 12 months in prison under Ohio law. Prosecutors have not identified the person Cordes allegedly tracked or said why he searched for them.
The searches came to light in June when Cordes self-reported during a department audit of the system, then admitted to them in an interview, prompting an investigation by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Sharonville Police Chief Jim Nesbit told WKRC the audit turned up other improper use, which the department addressed, and that “Lt. Cordes came forward to share that he too had misused the system.” Sharonville leases 24 Flock cameras, and the department said Cordes has been placed on administrative leave while it finishes its own investigation.
“When technology is misused, it undermines public trust,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said in a statement. Pillich said Cordes is the first law enforcement official her office has charged with misusing the technology since she took office.
Rich Krummen, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 74, told FOX19 that people he’d spoken with were shocked, but added, “that’s why we have checks and balances.”
Several other cases
The case is one of several in recent weeks. In September, prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, charged five Indianapolis police officers with misusing their access to Flock cameras. One officer allegedly looked up the location of his ex-wife’s car more than 950 times over six months. On Oct. 7, a former Joliet, Illinois, police lieutenant, Jeremy Harrison, was charged with computer tampering and official misconduct over his use of the city’s Flock system, according to FOX 32.
The charges add to pressure on Flock, an $8 billion startup backed by a16z and Tiger Global whose cameras let any police department with a contract reconstruct where a car has been. Flock told Fortune it has raised $500 million at an $8.3 billion valuation and has argued it is adding customers far faster than it loses them.
In August, two Arizona cities, Tempe and Cave Creek, ended their Flock contracts on the same day, with Cave Creek citing privacy concerns and cases of misuse. A Flock spokesperson said then that every search is logged and reviewed through the company’s Audit Assistance tool, which flags unusual activity for administrators.
Closer to Sharonville, many jurisdictions in Greater Cincinnati have halted or canceled their Flock contracts over misuse concerns, WVXU reported, including the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated Cordes.
Flock declined to comment. An attorney for Cordes could not be reached.